"I want to make it clear that Brian has not been sacked," Koukash, the club's owner, said. "He's been moved from one part of the organisation to another. It's a genuine offer and it's up to Brian whether he wants to accept the job. If he doesn't – and I can't wait forever – there are other candidates I want to speak to. I will bring somebody else in to help us build a club."

Harris, the Wales head coach who left his job as Wigan assistant last Friday, took up the reins on Monday and has been given a contract to the end of 2016.

"I'm obviously really excited about the opportunity to be here," Harris said. "There are some challenges ahead which I'm looking forward to. The players been really responsive to some of my philosophies and visions and they've trained exceptionally hard."

Martin Vickers, the Salford chief executive, said that the rest of the coaching staff would remain unchanged and that an agreement has been reached with Sean Long for him to go full-time after initially rejoining them on a part-time consultancy basis.

Vickers added that the Australian Shane Flanagan was expected to arrive next week to take up a three-month consultancy role and that Salford are hoping to create a partnership with Flanagan's NRL club, Cronulla.